Credible Reporters? Libby Trial Will Feature Journalists as Key Witnesses

By: E&P Staff If a trial of I. Lewis Libby comes to pass, several well-known journalists may well testify against their former source, "a strategy that experts in law and journalism say has rarely been used or tested," The New York Times declared late Friday. "It is all but unheard of for reporters to turn publicly on their sources or for prosecutors to succeed in conscripting members of a profession that prizes its independence."

Indeed, Katharine Q. Seelye and Adam Liptak write, "Libby's trial on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice will largely turn on whether jurors are more inclined to believe a government official who played a critical role in devising the justifications for the Iraq war or members of a profession whose own credibility has been under assault."

This is "exactly the thing," Jane Kirtley, a professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota,told the Times, "that journalists fear most - that they will become an investigative arm of the government and be forced to testify against the sources they've cultivated."

Judith Miller, Tim Russert, Matt Cooper and others will likely play key roles, but the question is, given the current attitudes toward the press, will they be judged credible? On the other hand, Libby was part of the inside group that sold the war on Iraq based on faulty evidence or lies.

Russert said Friday, "Clearly the special counsel has made a judgment that when taking the comments and statements of Matt Cooper and Judy Miller and myself as opposed to Scooter Libby, he has decided that Mr. Libby was not telling the truth."